Voyagers Saga: New Threats
by Cydra
Summary: The gang are sent on a new mission a few weeks after losing Morph. But several old enemies have surfaced, along with a secret that Draco, Chip, and Contrinus have been keeping from the others. Slight crosses over into American Dragon: Jake Long as well.
1. Back Together

**Voyagers Saga:**

**New Threats**

**Chapter 1: Back Together**

Matt sat looking at the readout, only half-listening as WARDEN reported on supplies and new personnel arriving. Chloe was gone again, not due to the empire this time but due to Commander Neilsson. The jerk had in a petty vengeance, had arranged to have her sent to the front lines. That, combined with the recent loss of Morph meant that the ship was a very gloomy place. The other experiments weren't even around to liven things up with their specific brand of harmless chaos, having gone back to Kauai to get over the loss. Even Chupy could sense the sadness in the air and was not his usual bloodsucking self. He'd only attacked one of the new personnel, an all-time low according to the ship's doctor.

"I'd never thought I'd miss that annoying blob's antics," muttered Matt to himself, "sure he was a fifth wheel most of the time, but he at least lightened things up around here."

WARDEN, who usually had all the tact of a direct comet collision, said, "I can oversee the final transfers myself, you have been up 36 hours."

Matt shook his head. "No. Neilsson said we'd be getting orders as soon as we were loaded up," he said. The comm beeped for a second and WARDEN froze as he responded.

When he animated again he was smirking. "Sir, there has been a last minute addition on Commander Cole's orders. You may want to meet this final Pelican personally."

Matt sighed. "Great. Now Cole's rubbing it in, it'll probably be some gung ho 'shoot anything not human' gun nut." WARDEN carefully avoided saying that Matt was probably the biggest gun nut around as Matt walked out, heading for the docking bay and muttering about Cole's stupid sense of humor.

As Matt got onto the docking bay, he noticed a larger amount of activity than usual. It wasn't 'abandon ship' active, but more like 'busy subway station' active. Most of the new troopers milling around were walking by, holding kit bags and listening to holographic sub routines of WARDEN before heading to various quarters. He finally spotted the last Pelican landing on one of the landing pads and strode over just as a person in full combat gear including helmet climbed out and started to take the helmet off. "Ok, welcome to the Bladestorm, Miss......" he said, his voice trailing off as the helmet came off to reveal... "...Chloe?" he said.

Chloe grinned and said, "What? You're not too old to go cruising without your little sister, are you?"

"I...I thought you were half way to G-752," stuttered Matt as Chloe smirked.

"I half expected to be. All of a sudden Neilsson call me up to his office and gave me orders to report here. Someone must have pulled strings. He looked like he'd been forced to eat salt-covered lemons," she said, adding, "You'd have loved the face he made. I thought he was about to explode from anger."

Matt let out a laugh, which instantly let up a lot of pressure he's been feeling. "What do you know," he said, "Laughter really is the best medicine."

Chloe pulled out a datadisk. "I don't think you'll be happy with the orders," she said, causing Matt to frown.

--

The whole gang, Matt, Chloe, Techo, Talia and Wilson were sitting in the ships briefing room while WARDEN displayed their orders. "...as you can see, the NSC garrison in France found the lycan virus pod we lost several weeks ago..." the AI said, showing the helmet footage of the NSC squad that had come across the werewolf while on patrol. Matt was personally glad he hadn't eaten yet and was shocked that the squad had actually killed the creature. WARDEN carried on, "...Unfortunately the colonel in charge has reason to believe that Patient Zero has already infected several locals, boosted by the fact that an empire ship deposited a small team in the city a few days ago."

Wilson spoke "So how come Paris isn't heated glass from T-3 attacks?"

WARDEN said, "It seems this new commander thinks with his brain rather then his blasters," adding privately, "Unlike you lot..."

Matt cleared his throat loudly and said, "Even if this lycan virus has spread, how will we be able to recognize its victims? I seem to recall that werewolves are only beasts half the time."

"This particular virus has a partial deficiency in producing the hormone that causes heightened aggression. But as for spotting them, command thinks that this new commander already knows where they are. We follow him and, as you mercenaries say, crash his party."

"Ok then," said Talia, "We should probably bring the experiments along. As far as we know, lycanthropy doesn't take root in them. Anyways, this new commander might be made out of tougher stuff."

WARDEN had the decency to not look smug, but the tone of his voice next was practically oozing with smugness. "My scanners have confirmed that experiments 628 and 629 are already in Paris," he said. Matt glared at the AI. "Have you been listening in on personal communications?" WARDEN suddenly got a hunted look and said feebly, "...No?"

"What would those guys being doing in Paris?" asked Techo, "They don't know anybody there, do they?"

WARDEN said, "I do not think so, however the temporal backup logs appear to..."

And was interrupted as Matt said, "Fine, it's probably nothing. They'd tell us if they did. WARDEN, let's get underway. I always wanted to see Paris."

--

Colonel Anton looked over at the kids standing across the room from them. It had taken a lot of sweet tanking, and actually getting Dr. Johnson to make some real werewolf vaccine research to show them, but finally he was mere minutes from getting the damn DNA samples. He wasn't too worried about the experiments in the room as well, though he'd had to fake surprise when they'd appeared. They were just as the files said they were. "As I was saying, Executive Genetics can easily make this cure a reality," he said, pulling the sheaf of research back across the table they'd set up in the warehouse next to the Seine River, "However we need DNA for the template. This isn't like a painkiller pill." He kept one eye on the one called Draco however. If he messed up then Draco might sense his true identity...and killing them would mean so much boring paperwork.

The one known as Chip was also suspicious. "How comes I haven't heard about this 'Executive Genetics'?" he said, "I think a genetic research company like this would be somewhere in the NSC databanks."

Anton almost panicked but managed to say. "What's the NSC?" This seemed to partially mollify Chip's suspicions...though not totally. "Now then, my associates simply need a blood sample once you are in werewolf form," he said, happily before stopping. What had been that movement at one of the windows?

--

Matt finished trying to squash Techo into his own helmet. "Dammit, did he see you?" he said to Techo as the merc tried to pull his now-stuck helmet off again. One of the troopers with them risked a peek. "Nope, hey, Matt, I coulda sworn I saw 6-2-9 in there." Matt shook his head, "Not a chance. Wilson, Chris, you in position?"

Wilson pulled out his comm as Matt's message came through. "I'm fine, but I think Chris caught something at that frontier station. He's breaking out in a sweat. Medic has no clue what it is." Chris shook his head to stop the spinning sensation that had begun. "I'm...I'm fine, let's just get this over with," he said.

Chloe looked at Matt and said, "Are you sure doing this on the night of a full moon was a good idea?"

"Hey, you know that most lycan viruses die if the biters killed and the guy who bit Chris is extremely dead," said Matt.

Chloe didn't look convinced but nodded. "Ok, even though, let's just get this over and done with. We don't know what brand of lycan he was," she said.

Matt shrugged. "Fine, WARDEN, send in the other teams after us. It's only fair we give this new guy the opportunity to come quietly."

--

Anton was only a bit surprised when a blast blew the hinges off the emergency exit and two figures in CPS mercenary armor strolled in. If the lead troopers cocky air was anything to go by it was, "Captain Lynch, what took you so long?" he said as the two figures pulled out pulse blasters and began addressing him in Splitter.

"Ok, hands where we can see them," said Matt while the other figure, a female said,

"...and don't try anything. We're both tired and very angry."

Anton smirked even wider, "...and Miss Silvia, such an honor."

The female said, "It's Chloe, creep."

Anton sighed "I'm sorry, Miss Lynch. Can't you two have waited a few seconds more?" he said and pulled out a blaster and aimed at one of the kids, "I hate to have children see violence first hand." At those words, his men all pulled out rather nasty EXP buster rifles.

Matt looked at the kid he was pointing at. It was a boy about 13 years old with brown hair, wearing a green shirt under a dark green jacket with blue jeans. "I don't know what you're doing with these kids," said Matt, "But it's presumably despicable."

"What? Can't offer a cure to some lycans in need? I know all too well what the NSC's policy in unregistered Lycans is, but ah well," he said and made to press the trigger, only for the gun's plasma clip to ignite, making him drop it. He looked over at Matt who's eyes were glowing. "Impressive, very impressive, how do you handle bullets?" he said as his men took firing positions...and one of them fell forward, a small hole in the wall behind him. With that it quickly went to complete hell as the rest of the Bladestorm squad burst in.

Anton didn't seem that worried however, even when Draco flew at him angrily. He'd forgotten that Matt had probably given them translators too. "Are you sure you want to fight me?" he said calmly, side stepping Draco's initial lunge.

"C'mon," said Draco, "I've face humans with bigger muscles than yours." He paused and said, "You aren't fully human, are you?"

"What was your first clue? Next time you see an ancient, ask them about the travelers," he said, raising his hand in the same way as Matt or Chloe would before using their energy attacks and suddenly with a dull thud noise, Draco was thrown across the warehouse. "Idiot," muttered Anton and turned in time to dodge a slash from both Matt and Chloe's Ion blades. He stepped back and pulled out two ion blades of his own. "I don't want to fight you. We're such a small number that it'd be a waste to kill you," he said before looking at Matt and adding, "...especially those with such potential."

"I don't really know what you're talking about or what these kids have to do with anything," said Chloe, "But since it's Empire involvement, it's atypically evil and it's our duty to stop it."

Anton sighed. "Ok, I'll go easy on you," he said and that was the last straw as the Lynches lunged at the empire commander.

They quickly found themselves being forced into the defensive. Anton was able to easily hold his own against the double attack as well as land a few punches of his own. "This is the best the famous travelers have to offer?" he said swiping the legs from under Matt before locking blades with Chloe. "Don't make me laugh. You're much better then these...humans," he said to Chloe before pushing her back. "Maybe you just need a little...incentive," he said before dodging a stab by Chloe and landing his own in her shoulder. Matt was forced back to his senses by his sister's scream and turned angrily on Anton.

Draco felt a slightly painful twinge in his horns. That troubled him because they tended to do something if dark energy was nearby. What worried him more was that it was coming from Matt's direction.

Matt's face couldn't be seen by anyone else but Anton who suddenly looked a bit worried. "Oh shi..." he began before Matt fired a blast of black/purple energy that lifted Anton off his feet and smashed him through the brick wall and into the river.

The dark energy twinge vanished with that and Matt ran over to Chloe. "I'm fine. It's just a flesh wound. We've both had worse," she said before Matt could say anything. "I'm not going to suddenly drop dead, move left please," she added, firing a lightning bolt into one of Anton's men who tried to sneak up behind Matt.

Techo however had ended up near Chip, Contrinus and the children. "CHRIS! WHERE IN HELL ARE YOU?" he yelled into his comm.

--

Wilson was backing up. "Erm, Wilson here, I don't think Chris is cured," he said weakly.

"What do you mean cured? He hasn't been sick with-" Techo's voice paused before he said, "He did get infected from that Lupo guy, didn't he?"

Wilson could be heard gulping. A faint growling could be heard on the comm. "Yeah, I kinda noticed that. Nice Chris...NONONONO!" and with that the comm cut off. Techo wasn't listening anyway as two of Anton's men had slipped from the melee and were aiming at them.

"Say goodbye, NSC scum," said one of them. The trio were interrupted as Wilson came crashing through the window above them, landing on them.

"Goodbye," said Techo before checking Wilson who looked like he'd gone a round with a DARKRIFT trooper.

"He's...heading towards the main city," said Wilson unsteadily. Luckily his armor had taken most of the impact."

The two mercs were distracted then as they heard one of the kids, the one with blond hair in a spike, say, "Chip, who are these guys?"

Techo looked suspiciously at Chip. "Chip, do you know these kids?"

If Chip was capable of perspiring, he would have sweat dropped then. "Uh, sorta, it's kind of a long story that I think doesn't have time to be explained right now," he said as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Matt'll wanna know," said Wilson and was interrupted as Matt said behind them,

"What will I wanna know?"

It was Techo's and Wilson's turns to sweat drop. "Er, nothing important at the moment, sir," said Techo, adding, "Wilson's got bad news." Matt and Chloe listened grimly as Wilson explained where Chris was.

Chloe sighed after Wilson finished. "Great, as if we didn't have enough lycan infections to find."

Suddenly a clock in the distance started ring. "Uh oh," said Draco when the clock struck 10.

Matt turned to glare at Draco. "What's 'uh oh'?" he said icily. Anton's little stabbing demonstration on Chloe had not helped his mood, or patience.

"It's nothing," said Draco quickly.

Suddenly the sound of snapping bone and grunts of pain turned the group's attention to the kids. "Nothing that we didn't have good reason to keep secret," said Chip mildly.

Matt and Chloe watched as the kids began to transform. "Well..." said Techo in a desperately cheerful voice, "We found the infected."

Matt looked ready to explode at the experiments when Chloe put her hand on his shoulder. "We will be having words later. Wilson, with us, we'd better catch Chris before he happens to someone."

--

Meanwhile, in another part of the city, a large grasshopper-like robot was marching along the edge of a building top. Of course, the robot differed from a real grasshopper in several ways, such as having a tiny red eye-like optic near the base of its legs instead of a head and having a large symbol resembling a eye with one line on the top and three on the bottom on what could presumed to be its forehead. "This is so boring," it muttered with a whining voice, "how long does it take the wolf brats before they go prowling? It's already 10:00."

At that moment a large adult-sized werewolf landed in front of him, a nose width from him and studied him with far too much intelligence that a feral werewolf should have. It finally seemed to lose interest and backhanded the bot out the way before jumping back down to street level. A few minutes later, two warthogs ran over the luckless bot as he was trying to get back up.

The bot was pretty much crushed by the runover. But then its chassis opened up to let out a white heat that resembled an upside-down tack with a green optic shaped like a line bent upwards. "Not fair," it muttered as it hovered away, "The other Monstercons don't get treated like this. Whipsting doesn't get swatted. Deathgrip doesn't get run over. It's always poor Leafstripper."

The creature known as 'Leafstripper' followed the two vehicles a little way to see them finally about to corner the werewolf who wasn't pleased about it judging from the way it floored one of the armored humans with a backhand that made a dent in a brick wall. Leafstripper noticed a certain mercenary was among those trying to subdue the werewolf. One who's description he had heard of several times. "Matthew Lynch?" Leafstripper muttered to himself, "I better tell the boss bot. Especially since I need a new body." With that, he hovered off.

Matt however was busy trying to talk some sense into Chris while avoiding being embedded in a wall like Private Dickens had been. "Chris, for heavens sake, it's us!" he said, dodging another slash. Chloe was trying to sneak round him to stun him with electricity while Wilson was trying to load a tranq rifle.

"Stupid lion genes," muttered Wilson, "Should have known that genetic upgrade would have mixed with the infection."

Matt turned on his comm. "Chip, seeing as you know the infected, you know how to subdue Chris?" he said.

"You could use a little silver," said Chip, "but not too much or you'll hurt him."

"Yeah, we just happen to have silver in our ammo kit. Get over here right now!" said Matt, losing pacience and jumped as his comm erupted into static. The others winced as their comms started emitting loud feedback. Feral Chris cringed at the high-pitched sounds they were making.

"What in the name of smeg?" said Matt, angrily as a glow could be seen from a nearby computer shop. Wilson managed to get a good look and scrambled to get on the warthog's turret. Suddenly the glass on the window shattered as a bolt of what looked like marigold-colored lightning shot out from the shot and hit the turret. The turret crackled with electricity for a few seconds before shutting down, along with the rest of the vehicle. The blast also knocked Wilson out the turret to deposit him in a smoking groaning heap. Matt and Chloe both spun in horror as a familiar face came out the shop. "Mantichrome, you've got a nerve. I promised I'd take you out for trying to kill Chip," said Matt angrily. Even feral Chris recognized an enemy and snarled at the droid.

Mantichrome looked vaguely surprised at seeing them all. "When Leafstripper mentioned a werewolf, I was expecting one of those brats," he said, "But no sense in letting a revenge opportunity go to waste. Monstercons, attack!"

Matt and Chloe were surprised as the three robots came down from the rooftops. They were very oddly shaped robots. One of them resembled a giant lobster with four legs, three yellow eyes, and blasters in its claws. Another looked like a giant horseshoe crab only with only four legs, no tail, and it had two spots on its shell with the same symbol on Mantichrome's underside. The third basically resembled a flying stingray mixed with a cobra that had two robotic legs. The stingray looked down at Matt and smirked. "Too easy," he said and went into a dive.

If he'd actually been using his brain he'd have noticed that Matt did not look a bit worried, in fact him and his sister were smirking. "How about some sushi, fish face?" said Matt as he batted the stingray with his gun into a wall.

His smirk flickered a bit when the robot's tail separated in half and flipped backwards to form arms. Its belled unfolded into two legs as its head went down to fill in the gap. The wings separated from the body slightly to frame the shoulders while the former legs went up to become shoulder cannons. Then a head popped out, one that was shaped slightly like a stingray's head with a blue optic shaped like a line with the middle angled downwards. "The name's Whipsting," said the bot as it fired its shoulder cannons. Matt jumped as the blasts hit and when the smoke cleared there wasn't anything left. Whipsting smirked. "I thought you said he was tough, boss." he called to Mantichrome and was grabbed on the shoulders by two clawed, scaled hands, pulled into the air and thrown into a wall.

"He was right," called Matt cheekily, looking a bit singed in his dragon form. He'd been a fraction too slow in transforming when the blasts had landed.

Then the horseshoe crab started changing. Its shell split down the middle and opened slightly. The cubes its legs were attached to connected to from bigger, sturdier leg. Its bottom flipped up to become a chest plate while the sides of the shell separated to become arms. Then its head, which was like a disc bent into a U-shape with a yellow optic shaped like a square on the convex side, popped up and it cried, "Roughshell, smash!" Then he fired an icy beam from his left shoulder spot and a heat blast from his right shoulder spot.

Chloe, his target danced around the shots. For the first time since her rescue, she was happy she'd spent all that time as Silvia. If this had been a year ago, she'd have been frozen and fried for her woes, but now she was dancing round the blasts like they were in slo-mo. "Rough shell smash? Who do you think you are, the Hulk?" she said as one of Roughshell's shots hit a water main, causing the bot to be drenched in water, not that it appeared to care but it did give her an idea. "Try mine," she said and lowered her hand into the water, sending a magnified blast of electricity along the stream and up into the droid.

Then the lobster changed forms. Its tail unfolded into legs which it used to stand up on. Its middle separated in half while the head flipped backwards into the opened spot to from the chest plate. Its claws extended into arms. Then its head, somewhat tube-shaped with a red bar-shaped optic on the front and a large symbol on the top of its head, popped out. "Foolish humans," said the robot as it started shooting far more accurate shots at the mercenaries.

Suddenly the GPS computer on the warthog blazed into life and a giant locust flew out of it before heading for the lobster droid. "Leafstripper has new body," it said and had to duck when Matt took a cheerful pot shot at him.

"Quit fooling around and switch to robot mode," ordered the lobster.

"Yes, Deathgrip," said Leafstripper and began transforming. His base where the legs were separated from the body to become arms. The back part of him split apart and extended. Then they snapped back on themselves to form legs. The wings remained where they are, but its head popped out from behind its former forehead, now its chestplate.

Matt peered out. "What the hell are your little buddies up to, Manty?" he yelled cheekily at Mantichrome.

Chloe however was on her comm. "Techo, Chip, get your arses over here. We need backup, you didn't tell us some of the local villains are Cybertronians."

"Cyber-what?" came Chip's response.

"You know, those robot thingies that turn into monsters," said Chloe.

"Oh, the Monstercons," said Chip, "Ok, we'll be there soon. But if Mantichrome yells 'Monstercons unite', you'd better be prepared for a bigger fight."

Chloe was about to ask for a repeat of Chip's reply when he heard 'Monstercons Unite!' and she said "Never mind," before yelling to Matt. "HEADS UP!"

Suddenly the Monstercons' heads separated from their bodies and flew up into the air. Deathgrip's head angled downwards so the symbol on his head could be seen. Roughshell's head spun around to reveal the back, showing four eyes; a blue triangle, a red pentagon, a yellow square, and a green circle. Roughshell's head slid around Deathgrip's head while Leafstripper's head flipped upside-down and plugged into the bottom. Then Whipsting's head rotated upwards so the back of his head could plug into the top.

"Impressive." said Matt from his cover. "What else does he do?"

Then their bodies started transforming. Roughshell's arms retracted back to his sides and his shell split the other way. The back half of the shell swiveled down and clamped onto the back of his legs. The front half flipped backwards to frame the rest of the body. Deathgrip's legs flipped backwards behind his body as his body went up and plugged into Roughshell's chest plate, his monster mode limbs clamping into slots on the inside of the shell. Then Leafstripper and Whipsting's upper bodies went back to monster mode while their monster modes' lower bodies remained the same. Leafstripper's legs extended and plugged into Roughshell's right arm while Whipsting's arms extended further and the base between them plugged into Roughshell's left arm. Then the combined head came down and plugged into the top of Deathgrip's chestplate. "We are Monstructor!" called the Monstercons' combined voices.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," said Chloe.

Matt however summed up their feelings much better, "Oh bugger."

"Prepare for extermination!" called Monstructor as he stomped on the abandoned warthog. Feral Chris tried to leap at the giant, but Monstructor swatted him in mid-air.

Matt dodged aside to draw Monstructor away and keep Wilson safe, blasting away as he went. One blast grazed one of the eye symbols. Monstructor winced from the blast. Then Matt remembered his fight with Mantichrome back on Galva Prime. "Aim for those eye symbols!" he called, "That's the weak point!"

Suddenly something invisible grabbed two mercs before tossing them through the air. "What about those who wear no symbols?" said a haunting voice sneeringly.

Matt and Chloe got unsteadily up and looked around. "Who did that, Matt?" said Chloe quietly.

Matt sighed, "A guy we met a few months ago named Ghoulwyrm. He's a dracolich and a pain in the ass."

"C'mon, he couldn't be that bad," said Chloe. Suddenly a large undead-looking wyvern creature appeared in front of Chloe. It roared loudly as it separated its muzzle into four parts and black and white tentacles came out of its chest. Chloe blasted Ghoulwyrm in the face on reflex with a lightning bolt, only for it to go through harmlessly and electrocute Matt.

Ghoulwyrm grabbed Chloe with the large three-clawed hand. "Such a pretty thing," he said with his ethereal voice, "and with the power of lightning in her too. I wonder what she tastes like."

Chloe's eyes narrowed and she changed to dragon form before biting Ghoulwyrm's arm as hard as her bite allowed until he let go. "Bleah, you taste like the meatloaf at CPS HQ," she said.

The wound she made was quickly wrapped in bandage-like tendrils. "Feisty thing, aren't you?" he said, "But I can make lightning too." The mechanical devices on his back extended and began sparking with purple electricity.

A plasma burst hit him from below just as he fired, sending the blast wide. "No blasting my sister, you land of the dead reject!" yelled Matt. Ghoulwyrm turned his head and spat a wave of purple fire at Matt. Matt quickly rolled out of the way. Just as well as it melted the bricks of the wall behind him.

He suddenly felt an ion blade plunged through his shoulder and Chloe said, "...and no flash frying my brother," before ripping the blade along Ghoulwyrm's side.

Ghoulwyrm cried out in pain before bandage tendrils covered up the wound. He glared back at Chloe and growled, "Little wench." His muzzle split in four again and a loud sonic wave came out.

Chloe was knocked groundwards with a painful smack. "Ok, you really need to get to know normal people, bro," she said, dizzily. Matt who was trying to avoid being stepped on by Monstructor was not really able to reply.

"This has gone on long enough," said Ghoulwyrm to Mantichrome, "Call off your minions. We've got more important work to do."

Wilson, who was half fried from the lightning had managed to pull a M6 laser cannon from the warthog and it was now that he managed to shoot it, the blast scoring a direct hit on Monstructor's central eye symbol and punching through the back. "You're...not going...anywhere," he managed, swinging the gun round to aim at the two.

Ghoulwyrm glanced up at the full moon and said, "You wouldn't want to mess with me tonight." His body suddenly swelled a little with muscle as spikes came out of his feet, knuckles, shoulders, and down his back. The fangs in both his mouths got sharper and longer. Then his chest tentacles came out and a blast of purple energy came out from the center of those tentacles and hit Wilson, sending him flying several feet and hitting a wall.

Ghoulwyrm winced in pain as he glared at the Lynch siblings. His telepathic abilities were better than Draco's so he could sense the dark energy in the two. "Interesting," he said, "Mantichrome, let's fall back." Ghoulwyrm turned invisible again as Mantichrome took Monstructor's head, which had separated from his damaged body, and disappeared back into the computer store.

The two mercs were not about to let them leave undamaged and let loose a hail of weapon fire at them tiull they were gone. Chloe ran over to check Chris while Matt ran over to Wilson just as the rest of the gang arrived. Wilson was not in a good way. His arm was clearly broken badly and he'd practically been cooked in his armor when Mantichrome's lightning blast had hit him, not to mention the hole where Ghoulwyrm's tentacle blast had pierced him.

"Oh shit," said Matt, "Guys, I need a medic ASAP! We need to get him to a medical ward."

"Is Chris still on the loose?" asked Chloe. A whimper answered her question as Chris was pinned under some rubble from his fight with Monstructor.

Matt and Chloe both turned round when they saw the experiments had also arrived. "As for you lot," said Matt sternly, "I want to see you later. You'd better have a bloody good reason ready."

* * *

There's the first chapter of the first story of the new arc. As you can see, I'm taking a new approach to the editing from this story on. It's going to be more organized and legible from now on, which will hopefully help earn it more reviews. Anyways, the gang's back on Earth and they're meeting up with old enemies again. And it looks like Draco and Chp are in trouble with Matt. By the way, the Monstercons are on my deviantART in their monster, robot, and combined modes. Also the idea that the Lyoko kids are werewolves derives from my friend on devaintART, demongirl99. You should definitely take the time to look at her art, it's really good. I'm planning on updating later this week so keep an eye out for another chapter soon. Please review.


	2. Repercussions

**Voyagers Saga:**

**New Threats**

**Chapter 2: Repercussions**

The gang was waiting outside the Bladestorm's medical bay. "Don't worry," said Techo, "I'm sure Wilson will be fine. Besides, I've known Matt a long time. I don't he's as mad as he looks."

There was a thumping on the door. "TECHO, TELL THOSE LITTLE PESTS TO GET THEIR FEATHERY, SCALY, AND METAL BUTTS IN HERE!" came Matt's yell.

Techo looked a bit worried at that, "Though I have been wrong before. Anyone noticed that his temper's got worse over the last month?"

"Probably because Morph hasn't been here to do anything funny lately," said Reuben, "That guy needs constant comedy relief."

"No, it was before that," muttered Techo as the experiments went in.

Matt was seated at a desk and the only thing really missing from the picture was a thundercloud over his head. "Ok, explain yourselves," he said in a deceptively calm voice.

"Well, I guess it started back when Chip got possessed by this AI named XANA," said Draco, "So me and Morph went over to France and met this bunch of kid that protected the supercomputer this AI lived in so they can keep XANA from taking over the world. We stayed there for a bit after Chip was freed and that was also where we first met and beat Virustocron."

Chip continued the story, "Then we left for a long while and during that time, the kids had managed to defeat XANA for good. We came back when we detected weird temporal fluctuations, which was Mantichrome coming back through time and he tried to use the supercomputer to take over the world."

Matt remained silent. He remembered having a weird sense of deja vu when he'd seen Mantichrome on Galva Prime. "Ok, makes sense, how do you know the young werewolves?" he said.

"I suspect the pod containing that werewolf went through both time and space went its jump engine went off," said Chip, "it apparently fell here and it bit Ulrich and the curse eventually spread to the rest of the gang. We only found out when we checked up on them again."

Draco started again, "But they had a friend named Cross who was working on a cure for them so we thought we could leave them alone. Although we did get a little worried when Mantichrome freed Ghoulwyrm to help him and then there were those other guys..."

Matt banged his fist on the table. "SHUT UP!" he shouted and the experiments did just that. "You deliberately kept important information from me and my crew. Why? You thought I'd give them a free pass to one of the Nullspace Viral control center's compounds? Or a free all expenses paid trip to Kryos? WELL?" he said angrily, his eyes glowing white.

"Well, we thought they had the situation under control," said Contrinus, "They've managed to handle themselves well so far and we knew how the NSC handled infections like lycanthropy. Not to mention we thought they'd might overreact to that supercomputer being there."

"No, not why you didn't tell the NSC, why didn't you tell me? One of your friends and someone who could have helped them?" said Matt icily.

Chip looked decidedly down-hearted as he spoke, "Well, we weren't certain if you'd be able to turn a blind eye to this or not. We really felt that they needed as little interference as possible. And we also feared that you'd be forced to tell your superiors about this."

"...and as a result Wilson's barely alive. If you'd told me, I could have been actually prepared for a possible run in with Ghoulwyrm or Manty and his cronies," said Matt, adding spitefully. "Despite your huge I.Q, did that even cross your mind?"

Draco shivered as his horns picked up more dark energy vibes from Matt. "We weren't sure how you'd react," he said, "We really didn't anticipate Mantichrome being in the area at the time."

"You want to know the golden rule?" said Matt coldly

"Something about silence?" asked Contrinus.

"No, it's that you never keep important secrets, cause then someone dies," said Matt.

"Er, is that an actual rule?" asked Draco, "I don't think I've actually heard that before. Has that rule actually been applied anywhere?"

This was apparently the last straw and Matt lunged forward and picked up Draco by his neck. "Yes, damn you...one word...Sy-Yong. Half my squad killed cause the research was on a 'need to know' basis...and a few of them didn't die straight away," he growled before putting Draco back down and sitting back. "Ok, you want to keep secrets? Keep them at Kauai: you're off my crew and off my ship," he said.

As the three of them turned to leave, Contrinus asked, "What will become of the kids?"

"Nothing. I never saw anything," said Matt, not looking at them.

"Are you really sure about this?" asked Draco.

"You might need us later," said Chip, "Maybe you should consider a temporary suspension?"

"No, you abused my trust and I only have people I trust aboard. Now get out before I have some of my men throw you out the airlock," said Matt, nastily.

"I hope you won't live to regret this," said Chip.

"If you do need us, you know where to find us," said Draco.

"I won't, get lost," said Matt.

--

It was later. Matt was sitting in the canteen when Chloe and Kala came in. "We heard about you firing Draco, Chip, and Contrinus," said Chloe.

"You think you may have been acting kind of harshly?" asked Kala, "You could have just shifted them away from the front lines or something."

"What front line? They're not mercs, but cause of them, Wilson's in the med bay," said Matt.

Chloe looked over at him. "Hey, it's not like we've told them about all our past ventures," she said.

"That's different," said Matt, "You don't expect those things to come back to haunt us." Chloe just raised an eyebrow in a 'are you kidding' way.

Chloe added, "You never did tell me about what happened in the Maelstrom star..." but stopped when she saw Matt's expression. He looked miserable and she wasn't about to add to things.

"What's getting to you, Matt?" asked Kala, "I didn't think you'd miss Morph that much. He's not really dead you know. He's just lost somewhere."

"Yeah, he's probably annoying someone right now," said Matt with a faint grin.

--

Meanwhile, Chip was looking through the ship's computer while Draco was watching. "Shouldn't we be leaving?" said Draco, "Matt made it pretty clear he doesn't want us on his ship anymore."

"I'm want to make sure that Mantichrome won't be able to hack into the ship's computer system," said Chip.

WARDEN's hologram appeared. "Mr. 629, what are you doing? Your ship is fueled and waiting to depart."

"I'm just making sure your virtual security's up to date," said Chip, "I'd hate for Mantichrome to worm his way in here and really cause some damage."

WARDEN looked confused for a second. "Do you wish for a shipwide scan?" he said.

"I might as well," said Chip, "Better safe than sorry."

WARDEN flickered and suddenly his confusion seemed to increase. "How peculiar, scanners in medical deck are offline and someone has logged onto the orbital defense grid via the terminals there."

Draco and Chip looked worried. "Uh, do you think you could identify who is at the terminals?" asked Draco.

"Negative, all other feeds are disabled," said WARDEN. "Attempting video feed...displaying..." he said and a holofeed appeared.

An image of Mantichrome hacking into a machine of some type appeared. "Oh dear," said Chip, "We better tell Matt."

"But didn't he want us out of his sight?" asked Draco.

"He also said we shouldn't keep things that are potentially life-threatening to ourselves. I'd say this is potentially life-threatening."

--

Meanwhile, in the medical bay, Leafstripper and Whipsting were looking through one of the apparently empty bays. "What is this?" said Leafstripper holding up a laser scalpel and jumped as it fired, singing Whipsting.

"Watch it, you idiot!" snapped Whipsting, "I don't know why the boss partnered me with you."

"Because we're the two smallest," said Leafstripper, inwardly thinking that the match-up was also a mistake, considering that Whipsting can't keep quiet.

There was a click-clack noise from the corner. "Oh my god, are you two really this dumb?" said Wilson's voice. The two Monstercons had been so busy exploring they'd missed him completely and he was now holding a rather large blaster rifle.

"I suggest you lie back down," said Whipsting, "The boss mangled you up too much to fight and we've got you outnumbered."

"Oh shut up," said Wilson and blew Whipsting's head off quite cleanly. He turned to look at Leafstripper. "What about you, grasshopper boy?"

Leafstripper lifted up his arms and said, "Don't shoot me. I'm just a little spy bot."

"You know what? I don't like spies," said Wilson and shot Leafstripper too before laying back. "Next time, I'm going to the local hospital," he said.

--

Matt was starting to feel better with his conversation with Kala and Chloe when Draco and Chip barged in. He was about to tell those two to get lost when Chip said, "Mantichrome's messing around with the satellites!"

"What? The defense grid? Is he nuts? The NSC'll chase him to the ends of the multiverse," he said, anger forgotten momentarily.

"I don't know, but he's hacking through like the firewall's made of styrofoam," said Draco.

Matt ran past them, yelling into his comm. "Security, get down to the medical level. EMP rifles recommended, we have visitors."

--

Mantichrome paused for a moment when he heard the alarm go off. "It would appear that our covert operation isn't as undercover anymore," he said. He turned to Deathgrip, who was in his monster mode, "Make sure the guards don't reach me until I'm finished." The first group of marines ran round the corner, holding EMP arc rifles. As soon as they spotted Deathgrip, they began firing bolts of EM lightning at him. Deathgrip was surprisingly agile for a monster his size and was able to avoid the worst of the blasts. He was also capable of returning fire.

When Matt and Chloe, with some more marines turned the corner behind him Deathgrip had already killed or taken out of the fight, half the squad. "Hey, tin can!" yelled Matt. As Deathgrip turned around, Matt aimed a well-aimed blast at his neck. It didn't break it, but it caused him to flip over. Unfortunately for Deathgrip, he, like most arthropods, had difficulty getting back up when he was knocked onto his back.

Chloe strolled up to Deathgrip and said, "Never liked shellfish…" as Matt joined her.

"Now, you stay there. Otherwise, we boil you like...well, like a lobster," he said and the two jumped past him, while the marines all aimed at him at close range, no chance of missing should he even twitch in a threatening way.

Deathgrip glared up at them and said, "Aren't you skipping a head?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Matt. Suddenly the wall behind them was blasted apart and Roughshell came through. Matt looked over his shoulder and said, "Oh, that."

Chloe remembered Roughshell too well and was already slashing at him with her blade as the droid yelled "ROUGHSHELL SMASH!" Roughshell's name wasn't apparently chosen for no reason as the blade bounced back off. Then he started firing the temperature-based attacks from the spots on his shells. Chloe dodged most of the blasts till an ice blast caught her leg. Roughshell headed towards her and Chloe had plenty of guesses what would happen when he arrived. Then she saw a similar eye icon as from the Monstructor creature on his belly.

She quickly absorbed electricity from the ship and aimed it all at the eye. "What are you staring at?" she muttered and fired. When the blast hit him, it apparently shorted him out. His legs gave out from under him and several cracks appeared on his chassis.

The marines, who had been too busy holding down Deathgrip with Matt to offer much except encouragement, cheered. Matt suddenly turned towards Deathgrip with the sort of grin an experiment would wear if they had found out the combination to the safe where the coffee was stored. "I wonder what would happen if we sliced off that..." he said apparently to himself before a buzzing noise from the room the two Monstercons had been guarding was heard. Matt and Chloe ran in to see Mantichrome at one of the ship's consoles. "Hey, hands up!" yelled Matt.

"I'd keep your blasters down if I were you," said Mantichrome, "We're close to the hull of the ship and a blast could cause a breach. And unlike you mammals, I don't need to breathe."

"That's why Chloe will electrocute you into submission. I've heard that overloads are really painful to mechanicals," said Matt, evilly.

"Is she fast enough?" said Mantichrome as a razor sharp field of energy appeared between his limbs, "I could slice a hole before you hit me."

"Most likely, she did run rings round your little minions like they were in slo-mo," said Matt.

"Roughshell has always been the slowest," said Mantichrome, "Now Whipsting would have been hard for her to tag."

"Yeah, wasn't he the one I almost nailed?" said Matt smugly before adding, "If you're so fast, how come Chip's still alive n kicking?"

Mantichrome growled and said, "Speaking of speed, you didn't think I wouldn't have a last line of defense, would you?"

"What does that have to do with speed?" asked Matt.

Suddenly Matt and Chloe felt a sting on their necks that spread a numbing sensation throughout their bodies. They tried to turn around, but they could only move at a fraction of their normal speed. Floating beside them was another robot, this one resembling a green jellyfish whose translucent blue head was covered by a snakelike mask. "Meet my assistant, the Schizophrona," said Mantichrome, "You can call him Phrone for short. And Phrone, thank you for delaying them long enough for me to finish."

Deathgrip could be yelling something about not being left behind followed by a 'shut up' and a buzzing noise followed by 'ow!'

Then Mantichrome pulled a datadisk out of the terminal and said, "Ah, our work here is done. These access codes are going to very useful in the near future."

Matt glared, not bothering to speak but the glare said it plainly, 'You are dead meat.' "And what shall we do with the organics?" said the Schizophrona in a snide voice.

"Leave them, let them fend for themselves," said Mantichrome as he plunged his stinger into the outside wall.

Matt managed to look up to see a cluster of red dots and gulped. The spiderbots, he remembered from his last meeting with them on the maelstrom star all that time ago were vicious little smegheads when upset, and judging from the glares they were aiming at the clueless villains, they were extremely upset. He made a note to ask WARDEN why he'd requisitioned such little metal psycho's for repair drones, if he lived.

However, WARDEN was busy saying, "Warning, hull breach, atmosphere dropping."

"Well, it's been fun, but I've got more vertebrates to exterminate," said Mantichrome, "Come, Phrone."

Phrone was about to move when he stopped. "You hear that?" he asked, looking around.

"Probably nothing of importance," said Mantichrome, "Now help me gather the Monstercons' heads."

Phrone was about to do that when about 40 spiderbots dropped on him from above. "What the...get em off," he said annoyed, which quickly became panic as the spiderbots uncoupled his arms and started hitting him with them.

Mantichrome looked at the tiny robots that were busy disassembling his lieutenant. "Odd designs," he said before blasting a couple of them off. "We don't have time to fool around," he said.

Phrone glared. "You think I'm doing this for fu..." he said and was cut off as a spiderbot uncoupled his current voice unit and shoved it in one of the holes in the hull.

Schizophrona switched to another voice unit and said a more brooding tone, "These little parasites are really getting on my nerves!"

"Oh, for glitch's sake," moaned Mantichrome as he went over to help his assistant remove his infestation.

Matt and Chloe suddenly felt the horrible feeling of Phrone's venom fading away and just in time too. The lack of air was causing a burning sensation in their lungs.

"We've got to seal up those leaks," wheezed Matt.

Mantichrome had managed to grab what was left of Phrone, who had just lost an auxiliary voice unit to the spiderbots who had retreated, sniggering into the vents before throwing the stolen parts at Mantichrome. Matt managed to make it to an emergency locker and pulled out a can of sealant foam. Matt quickly sprayed it onto the holes, sealing them up. "Hull breach repaired," said WARDEN, "Repressurizing."

Matt and Chloe turned angrily on Mantichrome, who was trying to deflect as many thrown parts as he could. "Hey, which part you wanna slice off, sis?" said Matt.

"More delays?" said Mantichrome in an exasperated tone. He tied one of the Schizophrona's disconnected tentacles into a lasso and threw it around the Lynch siblings. "I've had enough games for now," said Mantichrome, "perhaps we can finish this another time."

Matt and Chloe advanced angrily and stopped when three heads floated up to Mantichrome. "Ok, that's not something you expect to see," said Matt.

"That human you beat up blew our bodies up," complained Leafstripper.

"Why'd you send us to a useless medical bay anyways?" demanded Whipsting.

Matt started laughing out loud. "Is this your all-powerful minions?" he said forgetting himself in laughing.

Mantichrome glared back at Matt and told the others, "Find Deathgrip's head, we're leaving. Don't worry about those two. There should be enough venom in their bonds to slow them down."

Leafstripper's head looked up to see the eyes of the spiderbots looking around. A few had turned up in the medical bay and had used him for a football, much to Wilson's amusement. He personally had no wish to repeat the experience. His summoning to Mantichrome had only just arrived in time. They'd been trying to put him down the incinerator chute

"Uh, boss," said Whipsting, "Shouldn't we watch for those little critters?"

"Oh for glitch's sake!" said Mantichrome, loosing his patience. He sent out a viral wave that hit the spiderbots in the vicinity. They dropped down from the ceiling, offline. "There, satisfied?"

"Erm..." started Whipsting as the bots all turned on again and started trying to cut Mantichrome's foot off.

"Gah!" yelled Mantichrome in annoyance, "That's it, we're out of here!" He dove for a computer monitor and vanished in a flash of viral electricity, along with his minions. The spiderbots all looked disappointed before turning and swarming towards the corridor. Matt and Chloe, who were only just freed from their bonds, quickly followed them to try and stop them dismantling the prisoner, Deathgrip.

--

It was 5 minutes later, Chip had managed to talk the spiderbots into waiting while Matt and Chloe asked him a few things. "Ok, you've seen what our...drones like to do to prisoners. You sure you're not talking?" said Matt. Deathgrip's arm had been 'confiscated' before they'd stopped the bots.

"Do your worst," said Deathgrip, "My spark program can't be destroyed that easily. As a matter of fact, if you crack my head open, it'd probably escape into the Internet."

"Ok, but would that work in Nullspace? No internet there. It's a void and there's plenty of stuff that would love to snack on you, specially in the Null Void sector," said Matt absently.

Chloe said. "We never cleaned out under Morph's bed, not even the spiderbots go there according to WARDEN."

"What's that matter to me?" said Deathgrip.

"Well, you saw how the spiderbots shrug off small atomic detonations, and THEY won't go under there. So I'm thinking we send someone expendable, un-helpful," said Chloe.

Matt added, "...like you."

"You'd think stuffing me under some smelly cot is going to get me to talk?" said Deathgrip, "I've heard worse threats from playground bullies."

"Well, we did get some footage from the last drone. WARDEN, show him," said Matt. The footage showed some kind of mold thing, busily eating a spiderbot while ignoring the same lasers that had sliced and diced Phrone with ease. The comm ended when the mold creature finished and leapt at the viewer.

"That's...that's not real. That's just CGI," said Deathgrip. He didn't have a real face, but if he did, it would be covered with sweat.

"Nah, but its not the weirdest thing we've seen," said Matt.

Chloe added, "You should see Matt's dirty washing basket. Well, if you have a death wish."

Matt added, "WARDEN, get him ready, seeing as he doesn't want to talk," emphasizing on the last few words slowly.

"Alright, alright, I'll talk!" shouted Deathgrip, "Just keep that organic compost away from me!"

Matt smirked, "Ok, what was Mantichrome after?"

"The access codes for your pest control satellites," said Deathgrip, "The one that targets particular mutant DNA so it can blast them to ashes."

Matt smirked, "And what good will that do him? Thought he'd be all for EXP viruses running amok."

"He's aiming for viruses alright," said Deathgrip, "but not alien viruses."

Chloe, always being quicker on the uptake went pale. "Those werewolves...and us," she said, horrified.

"Bingo," said Deathgrip, "The boss will probably aim for a couple of the non-local lifeforms on this planet as well. And maybe he'll be able to rig those cannons for the local life too."

Matt glared, "Not likely, too many failsafes. If he messes with them, they target where the command came from."

"We'll see about that," said Deathgrip and he ripped off his head. He then tossed it at a computer terminal. Instead of it smashing against it, it vanished into the monitor.

"We better find out where Mantichrome is before he makes a big mess," said Matt.

* * *

There's another chapter. It looks like Draco, Chip, and Contrinus are in hot water with Matt, but that may change. Particularly since Mantichrome apparently has something nasty up his metaphorical sleeve for the entire planet. Like I said, the Lyoko Werewolf part is based on the story of my friend, demongirl99, on deviantART. The Schizophrona is an upgraded version of the Scyphozoa and is on my deviantART page. The next chapter will change viewpoints so you will definitely want to see it when it comes. Please review.


	3. The Terrible Escapes

**Voyagers Saga:**

**New Threats**

**Chapter 3: The Terrible Escapes**

There is a particular region of the Venezuelan rainforest that the locals believe should not be disturbed. It isn't just because of the delicateness of the rainforest's ecosystem (which extends to all rainforests), but because this part was supernatural. They believed that this place was held sacred by the gods who would not allow trespassers to desecrate it. Those who were foolhardy enough to try never came back. It was said that their ghosts haunted the place, moaning their foolishness in challenging the power of the gods.

That's what the local people believe. In actuality, all of it's a complete myth. Not the part that the ecosystem was as delicate like other rainforests, but the part about it being sacred/haunted. None of that supernatural mumbo-jumbo was true, but that didn't mean those superstitions weren't taken advantage of. While the NSC routinely captured criminals of different types, not all of them were sent to Kryos. The ones that were considered not as great a threat or as greatly powerful were sent to a prison base in the heart of said rainforest. Detouring was a simple matter. There were a few Splitters paid to pose as guardians of the forests and throw a couple of lightning bolts to keep anyone from nosing around. And it was child's play to have a couple of holograms to stand in for the 'lost spirits'.

However, today there was one actual ghost in that rainforest. Or at least someone who was part ghost. Ghoulwyrm had become uneasy of Mantichrome's new henchman. He had a feeling the revenge droid would try to rise up and dominate him. Therefore, it was prudent to collect a group of organic henchmen to even out the power levels. After the fight at Paris, Ghoulwyrm was able to use a Ghost Zone portal to cut across the globe to get to Venezuela. He had heard of the NSC keeping lower-level criminals in the jail they had in there; criminals that were considered above local authority's abilities to contain, but beneath that of Kryos. Criminals who would be willing to join up with anyone to bust out and strong enough to keep Mantichrome from doing anything maverick-like, but not too strong to think that they deserved the title of leadership.

"Let's see what we've got here," muttered Ghoulwyrm as he sniffed the air, "Hmm… laser cannons disguised as tree branches, laser-guided grenade launchers behind the logs, and a force field that will cause anything to pass through it to be both electrocuted and trigger the alarm." Ghoulwyrm rubbed his chin and said, "Tricky, but not impassible. As always, the defenses stop at ground level." With that, he turned intangible and drifted down under the ground.

A few seconds later, Ghoulwyrm resurfaced, inside the prison. "Typical," he said to himself, "Doesn't anyone ever consider that someone could go under a force field?" However, he remained invisible on the chance there would be guards. From what he heard, there would be plenty of them, and they'll be highly trained. Nevertheless, he noticed that asides from the electrified bars and the non-thermal security cameras, there wasn't much other security. "Pretty pathetic," Ghoulwyrm muttered to himself, "I know these are lower class criminals, but this is incredibly lax security. These people really need to update."

Ghoulwyrm drifted along the corridors. He saw plenty of scum in different holding cells, but none looked like the type he'd want on his team. He eventually paused at a place where two corridors met at a corner. This place didn't have cells or cameras near it, so Ghoulwyrm dropped his invisibility. "This may be trickier than I thought," said Ghoulwyrm, "I should have researched this place better so I know where I could fine more ideal henchmen."

Suddenly Ghoulwyrm sensed something. His Ectonurite DNA not only granted him the specie's ability to become invisible and intangible, but their psychic senses as well. And currently, he was sensing another Ectonurite, or something similar to one, not too far from him. He wondered if that meant there was an Ectonurite being held prisoner there. But then he felt the presence getting closer. In fact, it felt like it was just floating through the wall besides him. It's a little-known fact that Ectonurites can force each other to become visible or tangible. The same applies to those with Ectonurite DNA.

Ghoulwyrm struck out with his right hand towards the anomaly. When he felt the consciousness inside, he sent a psychic jolt. This caused the anomaly to wince and loose its invisibility. Ghoulwyrm started in surprise at what was revealed. The being looked like it was built from the limbs of different creatures connected to a dragon's torso. Moreover, the limbs themselves didn't look natural either. Rather, they looked more like they were taken from a hybrid of two aliens. Ghoulwyrm quickly studied the different body parts: the upper right arm was crystalline with a lava-like color scheme, the upper left arm looked like it was made from grey plant matter with organic metal attachments and a glowing green eye on the shoulder, the lower arms were made of furry orange bandages with claws at the tips of the fingers, the legs were somewhat wolf-like with balls attached to the feet, the tail looked it belonged to a large rotten fish carcass, the back and shoulders were covered with yellow armor plates that each had three green eyes on them, and the black insectoid wings had green circuit lines. But what really got his attention was that the torso looked exactly like the dragon form of Lynch's sister, albeit with green eyes with minus-shaped pupils and six small, round, green ears.

Not taking any chances with coincidences, Ghoulwyrm grabbed the chimera by the neck and slammed her against the wall. "And what have we here?" he said.

"Hey, hands off, pal!" yelled the chimera, "I got here first, I get to bail out a sidekick."  
"Is that so?" said Ghoulwyrm, "Forgive me if I don't believe you, what was it again, Chloe?"

She narrowed her eyes and said, "I am not Chloe. I'm not anything like her or her stupid brother, Matt, or like the rest of those half-pints he pals around with."

"Hold on," said Ghoulwyrm, loosing his grip slightly, "You know Matthew Lynch?"

"Know him? I've kicked his butt several times," said the draconic chimera, "His friends could barely lay a blow on me."

"Perhaps I acted a little rashly just then," said Ghoulwyrm as he released her neck, "I have had dealing with Lynch and his alien sidekicks myself. My name is Ghoulwyrm."

"You can call me Omnirus," she said.

Ghoulwyrm raised a bony eyebrow, "Omnirus? I think I've heard of you. Weren't you supposed to be… a guy?"

Omnirus's face flushed with anger and embarrassment. "The last time I met up with Matt, I assimilated the AI of his sister. It gave me a big power boost, but it left me with these," he said as he squeezed his chest.

"Wait, you're saying you had a sex change?" said Ghoulwyrm, his voice thick with amusement.

Omnirus glared at him, "Don't laugh at me. Unless you want your skull facing the other direction."

"That wouldn't kill me," said Ghoulwyrm, "But it would seem we share several common enemies. Therefore, it would be prudent to join forces to eliminate them." He extended one hand and said, "Does that sound reasonable to you?"

Omnirus considered it for a moment and said, "I normally go solo."

"Did you not say you were here for a sidekick?" said Ghoulwyrm.

"True, I guess teaming up wouldn't be that bad," said Omnirus and she shook Ghoulwyrm's hand.

"Excellent," said Ghoulwyrm, "Now we need to find where they keep the better quality criminals."

"What type of schemes do you normally come up with?" asked Omnirus.

"Typically, I try to use magic."

"Well, I've looked at the blueprints for this place," said Omnirus, "And I know the magical criminals are in that direction." She pointed down the corridor and said, "You head down there, take the next two rights and then go up three floors. Plenty of crooks for you to pick from there. I'll be heading over to the alien criminals. We'll meet up as soon as we get what we want."

Ghoulwyrm grinned and said, "Omnirus, I having a feeling this is the beginning of a profitable partnership." He and Omnirus then went their respective directions.

--

Meanwhile, there was a certain pair of prisoners who were eagerly anticipating their release. "Man, this place is totally square," said Bananas B, "Can't wait for ol' DD to break us out of this birdhouse."

"He won't be coming," said Chang.

"What's that?" asked Bananas B.

"The Dark Dragon we know will not be coming back. The stars have indicated that his time as the Dragon of Darkness has ended."

Bananas looked her with confusion, "Uh, how'd ya know that? There ain't a window in this room, let alone an observatory."

"There are other means of divining the stars' messages besides gazing at them," said Chang, "And last night, I received a specifically clear message."

"What's that?" asked Bananas, "Don't leave me here in the dark. Figuratively speaking, of course."

"My divinations have revealed that the next Dragon of Darkness will be here to liberate those who would follow him. Hopefully, we are worthy enough to serve him."

"Well, I don't care if this guy's as loony as a duck with an inner tube," said Bananas, "If he gets me outta here, I'd do whatever he says. How will we know him?"

"I have been able to get an image of what he may look like," said Chang as she pulled a piece of paper out of her cloak and showed it, "Behold!"

Bananas studied it and said, "You messed up a little. You forgot his arms."

"I did not!" said Chang, "The new Dragon of Darkness will be a wyvern."

"A what?"

"Surely you know we dragons come in different shapes. Have you not noticed how much Lao Shi's form differs from his grandchildren. The wyvern is another variant of dragon whose upper limbs form their wings. They're more common to Britain and Wales. We shall recognize him when we see him."

Just then the outside corridor's temperature dropped by several degrees. Then a smoky shape came out of the floor before forming into Ghoulwyrm. "This should be the place," said Ghoulwyrm, "Now to find some compotent, but trustworthy, servants."

"At last, our new master is here!" Ghoulwyrm turned around in confusion and looked at the cell next to him. It held a senior woman of Asian decent was dressed in maroon robes. Also in the cell was a monkey wearing a gold-colored tracksuit. The woman, who had spoken before, kneeled down on the floor and said, "Oh, great Dragon of Darkness, I am Chang, a humble servant who dedicates herself to the forces of magic who would claim this world as it its birthright. Release me and my companion so we may serve your great crusade."

Ghoulwyrm didn't quite understand what Chang was talking about, but he liked the tone in her voice, not to mention the fancy title she gave him. "Uh, very well then, I have been looking for worthy warriors to fight for me."

"I assure you, we are quite capable of serving any of your needs," said Chang.

"Of course, we won't be able to do anything until you peel open this sardine can," said Bananas B.

"Quiet, fool!" hissed Chang.

"True point," said Ghoulwyrm, "I guess you two would do as well as anyone. Stand back." Chang and Bananas quickly moved to the wall opposite that of the bars. Ghoulwyrm then started clawing at the surrounding stone and metal around the bars. Once that area had been suitably weakened, his muzzle split into four. A strong sonic howl came out in the form of purple rings of energy. The sonic blast hit the bars and caused cracks to appear all over them. Not wanting to take any chance whether the bars were still active or not, Ghoulwyrm unwound several bandage tendrils. He charged up the lightning rods on his back so that his hands and bandages were glowing with purple electricity. Then he grabbed the bars in as many place as possible. If the bars had been able to produce any shock, it was dampened by Ghoulwyrm's charged appendages. Then with a tremendous surge of strength from his limbs, Ghoulwyrm tore off all of the bars, including some pieces of the wall, and tossed it down the corridor.

Immediately, alarms began to sound. Chang and Bananas quickly got out of their cell. "We should leave now," said Chang, "They will be sending guards soon."

"Actually, I have a comrade that I need to meet up with first," said Ghoulwyrm.

"Then we shall reunite with your ally and we shall strike down the pathetic humans who would stand in our way with the poor conception that they are our superiors," said Chang as she started down the corridor.

Ghoulwyrm glanced at Bananas and said, "I like what she says, but I'll need to get used to the way she says it."

"You'll get used to it, mate," said Bananas as he clambered up on Ghoulwyrm's back.

The dracolich growled and said, "Don't expect to get a free ride every time. And I don't need to reach around to get you off." Then he started gliding off after Chang.

Coincidentally, at the same time Ghoulwyrm tore away the bars, Omnirus was doing the same for her new minion. But let's go back in time a little bit to see how that happened.

Omnirus had gone to the alien criminal section. She was a bit more selective than Ghoulwyrm. What she wanted was a minion who intelligent and be able to back her up with muscles. And most importantly, someone who would take her fully-powered form seriously.

As she was looking at the various crooks, one in particular caught her eye. This looked a lot like a red version of Stitch, only with bent antenna, ruffled ears, and yellow teeth. "What have we here?" she said, "Let me guess; evil Stitch from a mirror universe?"

The alien growled at her and said, "Leroy not evil Stitch. Leroy evil twin."

"Leroy? Oh yes, I've heard something about another Hamsterviel forcing Jumba to make an evil twin of Stitch and then creating a clone army of him. You must be one of those clones."

Leroy nodded and said, "Clone # 4389."

"So how did end up here?" asked Omnirus.

"Leroy managed to escape prison and stole a police cruiser. Would have gotten away if blasters didn't damage hyperdrive. Sent Leroy to other universe where Leroy was captured and imprisoned."

"Hmm… I like you, Leroy," said Omnirus, "How about I bust you out and come work for me?"

"Leroy can cause trouble?" asked the clone eagerly.

"As much as you can handle."

"Deal."

"Excellent," said Omnirus, As soon as Leroy was on the other side of the cell, Omnirus pointed her Diamondblast arm at the bars and started torching them with flames. Eventually, the bars became orange-hot. Then the three eyes on the Eye Bolt plates on her shoulders combined and shot freezing beams at the bars. This caused the metal to cool down rapidly and weaken. Cracks appeared all over it and the internal wiring was shot. Then it was simply a matter of grabbing the bars with her four arms, ripping it off, and tossing it aside. That caused the alarm to go off. "C'mon," said Omnirus as she and Leroy ran off.

Omnirus and Leroy quickly headed through the corridors. Omnirus was trying to find Ghoulwyrm so they could get out of there. It wasn't that hard to find him, judging by the sound of gunfire and general noises of battle. They got into a larger room, sort of like a courtyard. Ghoulwyrm, Chang, and Bananas B were fighting off several guards. Well, at least Ghoulwyrm and Chang were. Bananas was trying to hide behind the two and out of harm's way. Ghoulwyrm in particular showed no signs of holding back. He used his various powers to fry, electrocute, stun, or simply slam guards that were trying to shoot him. He even reeled in a couple and took large bites out of them.

"Ghoulwyrm! Wait! You shouldn't kill so many!" called Omnirus.

Ghoulwyrm turned to Omnirus and said, "So glad you managed to make it. Care to join us in a bit of slaughtering?"

"We can't kill them all," said Omnirus, "This place is rigged so that every 10% of the guards you kill, one of the 10 coolant tanks blows. When all of them blow, the main reactor will overheat and blow this place sky high."

Ghoulwyrm gave Omnirus an odd look and said, "C'mon, you don't really believe that, do you? It's just a bluff to make sure no one tries to break or-" He was interrupted as the floor beneath him exploded because of the coolant tank beneath. Ghoulwyrm was through up so fast he didn't have time to turn intangible before his head hit the ceiling.

"Tried to warn you," said Omnirus. Suddenly several guards fired blasts on her, which knocked her into a wall. She groaned a bit and her body shrank down. Her limbs remained the same, but her main body and head now resembled that of a brown experiment, like Stitch. Most noticeably, Omnirus was male now.

"Boss?" inquired Leroy.

"I'm fine," said Omnirus, "Just got knocked down from X0 to X."

Ghoulwyrm had fallen back to the floor, a little dazed from the blast and the blow to his head. He soon shook it away and said, "Very well. You've made your point. Chang, you know teleporting spells, right?"

"Indeed, my lord," said Chang.

Omnirus raised an eyebrown, "Didn't know you had such a fancy title."

"Her idea," said Ghoulwyrm, "Anyways, now would be an opportune moment to use one to get us out of here."

"As you wish," said Chang and she held up her staff, which started glowing at the tip. Ghoulwyrm, Omnirus, Bananas B, and Leroy quickly got close to her. Before the guards could stop them, there was a brilliant flash of light, into which the escapees disappeared.

* * *

There's another chapter. Sorry it took so long for me to update. I've been having a slight bit of trouble thinking up the dialouge and such. Anyways, now things are going to be trickier. Chang and Bananas B are now working for Ghoulwyrm and Omnirus now had a Leroy clone for a minion. In case you're wondering if Leroy's clone number means anything, it's the numbers 624-30 added together. The next chapters will be coming a lot sooner and will be switching back to the others. Keep an eye out for it and please review.


	4. A Close Zap

**Voyagers Saga:**

**New Threats**

**Chapter 4**: **A Close Zap**

Matt had decided that, in light of the current situation, Draco and Chip could stay, for now. But they had to do some serious information deliverance. "Ok, spill the beans. What exactly are we dealing with? Leave nothing out...or else!" said Matt.

"Well," said Chip, "You already know that Mantichrome has a pretty large hatred of organics. I'm sure you people have dealt with robots like that."

"Do digital lifeforms count?" asked Techo and winced as Matt kicked him under the table.

"Well, Mantichrome normally keeps a base on the other side of France from Kadic," said Draco, "But knowing him, he'd probably leave to find a more secure place to hack those satellites. You have any bases around here that maintains them or something?"

"No, the defense grids are linked to each other. It was that hack-proof idea you sent to NSC command that time we took Lilo to see the council, remember?" said Matt

"Oh, right," said Chip, "But then again, if the Council did do as I suggested, Mantichrome wouldn't have been able to get those access codes in the first place, would he?"

"Watch it, Chip," said Matt warningly.

Chloe said, "If the werewolves are the targets, we ought to evacuate them to the NSC base. The satellites' AI's can't fire on them, even if there's a target there."

"I suppose that could work," said Chip, "But you're going to have to explain at the school. People would get suspicious if the Men in Black popped up and took those kids away."

Techo smirked and passed a strange glove to Matt. "That's why the ancients invented neural mind wipers," he said.

--

**Kadic Academy**

Matt got out of the car he was in and looked at the building. "Nice place," he commented, "Wonder what the tuition's like here?"

Chloe sighed, "Probably worth more then the Bladestorm's insurance."

Matt turned, "Look, WARDEN said he didn't mean to hit the Hubble when we warped in."

As the siblings were walking toward the school, a larger man wearing a red gym suit approached them. "Excuse me, sir, ma'am, is there a reason you're here?"

Matt smiled. "Hi, we're here to see a few of your students. It's a family emergency," he said, pulling out the pictures of the kids.

Jim studied the pictures and said, "Huh, it's those kids who are always hanging out together. What exactly do you mean a family emergency? I'm sure the kids' parents would have called if something had happened."

"Phones are out, solar flares," said Chloe promptly and when Jim glared at her and turned to check his own mobile, she fried it with a static bolt.

"See?" said Matt innocently

"That's weird," said Jim, "Didn't hear anything about solar flares on the news this morning. And what kind of 'emergency' are we talking about?"

"Well…look at this," said Matt, pulling on the mind wipe glove and blazing it in Jim's face.

"You'll bring us the kids we need to see," said Chloe to the stunned Jim.

Matt added, "...and then you'll put on the chicken costume and dance on the gym roof." Chloe glared at Matt who said, "Well, somebody's gotta do Morph's job till we find him."

"Sure thing," said Jim in a numb voice as he lead Matt and Chloe into the school. However, neither of them noticed the odd kid that was watching them, the one with extensively covering green clothes and a large green wool cap.

The 'kid' wandered over to the Lynches' warthog and began looking at the controls. He'd been told to sabotage the vehicle controls as best he could. Unnoticed a spiderbot slowly powered up under the driver's seat and peered out. "Shouldn't be too hard," muttered the 'kid', "Humans make such primitive machines." Suddenly, one of those 'primitive machines' jumped up and pulled the 'kid's' cap off, revealing the white metallic head underneath. The 'kid' really Leafstripper turned slowly in mortified horror and saw the spiderbot who said 'Hallo' and then jumped on Leafstripper's face.

A few minutes later, Matt and Chloe walked out with the kids. "You really told him to do the chicken dance?" said Odd, obviously highly amused.

"Yep," said Matt, "Should be out just about any..." He stopped when he noticed that a kid by the warthog was trying desperately to yank a spiderbot off his head.

"Ok, I told WARDEN to reprogram them to not maul car thieves, specially after New York." muttered Matt, walking over and pulling the spiderbot off...and to his horror the kid's head. He slowly followed its trail back to the 'kid' and saw one of Mantichrome's bots. "YOU! GET HIM!" he yelled and lunged at him. Leafstripper's insectoid legs ripped out of his shirt's sleeves. Matt didn't think much of it until they started shooting pellets in a machine gun-like fashion.

Matt barely got his shield up in time to avoid being a colander. Leafstripper took this opportunity to vanish into the internet via the hog's onboard computer. Chloe looked at the hog. "He was trying to fry the jamming systems, wonder why?...oh no!"

--

Sat-Def unit-21-A online

Warning: New targeting Data recieved from unknown remote terminal

Data accepted. New lifeforms added to targeting list. Commencing scan.

Alert...E.X.P hybrid detected...Lycan detected...E.X.P priority one target...charging

--

Orbit

Defence grid satellite 21 slowly began to power up, the bottom of the cigar shaped satellite slowly opening up like a flower to reveal the glowing energy cannon. The satellite's A.I was confised as to why a high ranking N.S.C trooper was on the targeting list now but orders were orders.

--

"Ok, we've got to get moving, really quickly," said Chloe as she hopped into the Warthog.

"You sure we can't stay for Jim's chicken dance?" asked Odd.

Chloe's comm beeped. It was WARDEN. "Ma'am. Defence satellite 21 is activating. It is targeting your location. Recommend immediate evacuation."

"That answer your question?" said Chloe, "We better move it, kid, or we'll be the lining of a new smoking crater."

"Sir and Ma'am. You have been added to the targetting list, you are the priority target," said WARDEN. Matt shrugged. "That answers tha, one of us'll have to lead it away," he said and the group looked up as the cloud cover began to develop a yellow glow.

"XANA did something like this once," said Yumi, "Just make sure you don't stay in one place for too long and it won't hit you."

"Easy for you to say, you're not flying," said Matt.

"What do you mean by-" Jeremie started but a look up at the clouds made him drop the question, "We have to get away from where innocent people could get hit."

Matt ran round a corner and there was a flash of light followed by a winged shape flying over the building and heading as fast as it could away from the school, and not a second too soon. A beam of light as thick as a redwood blasted down, blowing several parked cars to smithereens before slowly heading after the shape, burning a foot deep trench in the tarmac as it went.

--

Matt, in dragon form, risked a look over his shoulder to see the ion beam heading after him, picking up speed as it did. "Oh smeg this," he muttered, dodging a deserted building before carrying on, to see the beam not even slow down but simply plow through the building mercilessly. "Oh, that's not good," said Matt, not wanting to see the affect of the beam on flesh, particularly his. He got a good idea when the beam hit a group of tree's completely vaporizing them. "Really not good!" he yelled and yelped when he clipped a low wall, flipping head over tail to the ground. He got up unsteadily to see the beam closing and shut his eyes. Suddenly the beam flickered and shut off. Matt opened his eyes slowly. "Am I dead?" he asked, "Cause if I am, then heaven's totally whacked."

The comm beeped. It was Wilson, "Damn, Lynch. That was too close. Satellite S-Alpha 1's toast. We're watching the others. Whatever you got planned you'd better get going and do it." Matt winced. At this moment he'd have preferred to be dead, at least then he could have a smegging rest.

--

After that, Matt met up with the kids and Chloe at Kadic. "Well," said Matt, "That certainly shocked any loose cholesterol out of my arteries." The kids looked suspicious of Matt and Chloe, probably with good reason at that. At least one of the aforementioned mercs had turned into a winged lizard. "Stop looking at me like I'm gonna roast you," he said finally.

"Well, I guess compared to what we've seen, they're not that unusual," said Aelita. Matt would have liked to know what the group had seen, but he knew now was not the time for it.

"So, WARDEN's scoured the planet but Mantichrome's dropped off the face of the earth," said Chloe breaking the attention away from the staring contest that had broken out between Odd and Matt.

Then Odd spoke, "So do you need to eat peppers to breathe fire or can you do it by yourself?"

Matt glowered and replied with, "Do you spend all your allowance of razors now?"

Chloe rolled her eyes and banged their heads together before looking embarrassed at the others. "Sorry, it's the only way to stop him when he gets like that."

Ulrich shrugged and said, "Fine with me. Odd usually does dumber things than that. And more often he gets hit with an open hand."

Chloe shrugged. "So, any ideas where Mantichrome slipped off to?"

"Well, he might have managed to find one of his 'father's' Replikas," said Jeremie, "He could have set up base there so he can prepare to attack your satellites from the inside."

Chloe sighed. "Presume, quite rightly, that I have no idea what you're talking about," she said a bit more sharply then she might have any other day. It had been a long day after all with one thing after another.

"You've heard about XANA, right?" asked Yumi.

"Yes," said Chloe.

"Well, Mantichrome was made from XANA's data and when XANA freed himself from the supercomputer, he went to other supercomputers across the world and created miniature Lyokos called Replikas."

"Ok, so point the way and we'll go laminate him to the bedrock," said Matt in a slightly slurred voice.

"It's not that easy," said Jeremie, "We need to track him down through the Digital Sea with the Skid first. Once we get there, we'll be able to teleport to the real world and take down the supercomputer he's housed in."

"Hey, what if he just shuts the door on you or blows up your end. You'll be stuck in there," said Matt.

Odd suddenly pointed out the window. "Hey, that hypnosis worked after all. You guys gotta see this..." he said. Matt and Chloe walked to the window with the others. Chloe put her hand over her eyes and sighed while Matt burst into gales of laughter. The luckless gym teacher's mental command had finally kicked in as he was now on the roof in probably the weirdest chicken costume ever seen in human history.

"If we get back home, I'm disowning you," said Chloe dully.

"I'm so glad I brought my video camera," said Odd as he started filming Jim's funky dance.

"Ok, we can watch for a few minutes, but then we have to get rolling," said Ulrich, "We don't want Mantichrome coming to us."

"Maybe we should do it sooner, we don't want another of those satellites turning on, do we?" said Matt in a surprising show of common sense.

"Ok, ok," said Odd, "Just one more minute."

Ulrich sighed and said, "Sometimes, it's embarrassing to call you my roommate."

Chloe looked at Ulrich. "Try living with my brother, he's allowed guns," she said in sympathy

--

Later, Matt and Chloe watched as Jeremie worked on the supercomputer. In a matter of minutes, Ulrich, Odd, Yumi, and Aelita had been digitalized and where piloting the Skid through the Digital Sea. "Now remember," said Jeremie, "As soon as they find out when Replika Mantichrome's at, you get there as fast as you can."

Matt looked dubiously at the digitizer and was about to reluctantly step on himself when his comm beeped. "It's Wilson sir. We got trouble. Just intercepted a police comm...that Anton guy's headed your way with a whole bunch of trouble in tow. I think you pissed him off when you sent him through that wall."

Matt gulped. "I don't think we'll be going along for a bit," he said

"Don't worry about me," said Jeremie, "I'll shut down the scanner so Mantichrome can't send anything through and the Towers on Lyoko are safeguarded. Mantichrome would have to come himself in order to activate one and he'll be too busy to do that. Just keep that Anton guy from attacking the factory. When you're done, I'll send you the coordinates so you can get to Mantichrome's supercomputer."

Matt and Chloe walked out to see Anton standing in front of the factory. Anton's men seemed to have learned caution after the last time and were taking cover behind anything sturdy while, like before, Anton stood cockily in the open. "Take your best shot," he said rudely with a sarcastic bow. Chloe and Matt did just that firing their most powerful attacks at him. With a blur almost too fast for human eyes, Anton deflected the attacks with his ion swords. "Is that all?" he said, scoffing, "Amateurs."

He smirked and put his ion blades away. "My turn," he said and raised both hands. Chloe and Matt barely managed to dodge the bulk of the attack but the sonic blasts explosion blew them into the air.

"Ow," said Chloe weakly.

"I second that," agreed Matt, coughing dust up.

"Pathetic," said Anton, "You've taken down monsters of various kinds. But when you face another of your kind, you fail miserably."

"We'll see about that," said Matt as he got up.

"Must we?" said Anton, "You'd do so much less damage to the area if you just surrendered now."

"Oh, like you even care about the mess you'd leave here," said Chloe as she got into a fighting stance.

The Lynches both ignited their ion staffs and Anton smirked. "Are you sure you want to go through all that again?" he said, stepping forward into a puddle on the floor.

Matt retorted, "You sure you want to stand there?" Anton looked down and back again in time to see Chloe send a blast of lightning into the puddle, causing Anton to convulse from the shock. Matt smirked, "Like you said, we beat all kinds of monsters, even the human ones," and with that sent a plasma orb into Anton's chest, sending him flying into a gas tank. "That's that, you want some too?" Matt said, yelling the last part at Anton's men who seemed to be waiting.

Then the smoke cloud cleared away to reveal Anton, still standing. "Very resourceful," he commented, "and a nice use of teamwork too. However, its actual effectiveness leaves much to be desired."

"Oh you've got to be kidding me, JUST DIE ALREADY!" yelled Matt, picking up a piece of brick and throwing it at Anton.

Anton barely needed to move to avoid the brick. "That's it?" he said, "Lobbing bricks? Come, come now. I'm sure you can think of something more creative and effective than that."

Matt glared at Anton and started heading for him. "How about I sprout some claws and rip your jugular out?" he said, transforming his hand and aiming a slash at Anton's throat.

Anton caught Matt's hand with his own. "That's better, if a bit more savage," he said, "Let me show how it's really done." Then his other hand sprouted claws and slashed at Matt.

Matt fell back with a look of shock on his face and three neat slashes on his chest. "What? You two thought you were the only ones the ancients screwed up with?" he said, pulling out his Ion blade again only for a lightning blast to shock it out his hand. "Ah, Miss Lynch, I almost forgot." Anton tossed Matt aside and said to Chloe, "You don't really expect to defeat me on your own, do you? You may have plenty of fighting spirit, but females lack the muscle mass that we males possess."

Chloe glared as Anton got closer. She aimed an ion blade slash at him only for Anton to grab her wrist. "I like a strong female...urk," he began and suddenly went cross eyed. The reason for this was because Chloe was wearing steel capped NSC combat boots and had just inserted one in the area no male liked to have a boot put at high speed. "Like I said...lots...of…spirit," he squeaked before folding up on the floor.

Matt got up and walked over. "It's surprising how many people can be taken down that way," he said, "Too bad it only works on males."

"Yeah, but it's only temporary," said Chloe, "Hopefully the others will have found Mantichrome's location soon. That and we also need to get these thugs away from here."

Matt looked over at Anton's men who were watching in horror. "Screw that, we're not that desperate," said one of them

Matt and Chloe watched as they all ran off. "Well, that's one bit of relief," said Matt, "But we need to get rid of him too." He pointed at Anton, who was still in a fetal position.

Matt and Chloe looked at each other and smirked.

--

Anton finally came back from his private world of pain to see a spiderbot, the same one from the warthog staring at him with the largest energy scalpel he'd ever seen. "Erm, nice robot arachnid," he said slowly and tried to slowly edge towards where his ion blade had fell, only to stop when the spiderbot glared at him and blasted a small crater in the ground between him and his blade. "Ooookay, I'm comfortable anyway..." he said, adding after a thought "...for now."

--

Matt and Chloe came back into the room where Jeremie was. "We're clear, Anton's got company," said Matt.

"Well, that's a relief," said Jeremie, "The others have looked at most of XANA's old Replikas. When XANA was destroyed, they all became inactive. They're trying to see if anything's been active. Fortunately, they haven't run into any sea monsters yet."

Matt stopped. "Sea? No one mentioned we'd be underwater," he said. Matt's fear of drowning was well known.

"Well, it's not really a sea," said Jeremie, "It's actually the worldwide web. It just appears as water."

Chloe said, "We won't really be underwater."

Matt appeared to partially calm down and said, "So, how will this work?" he said, looking at the machine.

"Well, I was thinking that as soon as the others located Mantichrome's base, you take your spaceship and just fly over there to back them up," said Jeremie.

"Like hell, that jerk attacked my ship and tried to kill us. We're not going out the loop this time," said Matt.

"Well, if you want to go through the Internet, you have to be scanned by the supercomputer first," said Jeremie, "Of course, this means that whenever a RTTP is activated, you'll remember everything that's happened."

"Good," said Matt and Chloe at the same time.

Matt said, "The last time we got our minds wiped by these RTTP thingies Wilson nearly got cooked in his combat gear."

Chloe said, "We want to remember."

"Ok then," said Jeremie, "Just head down to the scanners and I'll have the supercomputer scan you."

Chloe went first, looking at the scanner. "So, how will this work then?" she said as Matt watched Jeremie typing into the terminal.

"It's kinda complicated," said Jeremie, "But basically, the supercomputer will scan your brainwaves and create a file for them. Then it will use your subconscious to create a digital form that's appropriate for you."

Chloe smirked. "It'll have trouble with Matt then..." before being cut off as the machine turned on.

Jeremie looked at Matt and asked, "What does she mean by that?"

Matt was just watching as the scanner went to work.

"Let's just say that I've been to a lot of place and each of those places left an imprint on me," he said.

The first thing Chloe experienced was a strong wind blowing upwards. Then she closed her eyes as a bright light moved up and down her body.

Matt looked worried for a second. "Is that right?" he said.

"That's normal," said Jeremie, "It'll be done in just a few seconds."

Then the scanner opened and Chloe stepped out. "You're next," said Jeremie.

Matt stepped into the scanner. "This doesn't hurt does it?" he asked as it shut.

"Absolutely not," said Jeremie, "But you may need to shut your eyes, the light's rather bright."

Matt was about to reply when he was blinded. Chloe listened as Matt shrieked a bit. "You'd think he'd make less of a fuss," she said absently.

Matt stepped out and blinked several times until the spots faded away. "I did warn you to shut your eyes," said Jeremie.

"Yes, yes you did," said Matt. "But I'm fine...OW!" he added shortly before walking into a wall. Chloe sniggered.

Then a notice popped up on Jeremie's computer. "Well, you're in luck," he said, "The others just found Mantichrome's Replika. As soon as you're ready, I can beam you over there."

"Don't we have to go in that submarine thingy?" asked Matt, sounding slightly nervous.

"Actually, thanks to a program that Chip's installed, when the Skid's dock at a Tower in the other Replika, I can virtualize you right there."

"Virtualize? We can handle that," said Matt.

Jeremie looked at him and said, "You know about virtualization?"

Matt nodded. "When me and Chloe helped deal with Ex-Gene we were in a di...OW!" he said and hopped as Chloe kicked him.

"Don't listen to him. His brain sometimes stalls, specially when he almost talks about stuff he shouldn't," she said.

Jeremie decided to focus on the more immediate situation and had the Lynch siblings get into the scanners. "You sure we'll be ok?" asked Chloe.

"Sure thing," said Jeremie, "Draco, Chip, and Morph have been to Lyoko before and they turned out fine. But their DNA was more unstable so they didn't go there every time. Where is Morph, by the way?"

"Erm, indisposed," said Matt lamely.

---

The scanner flashed in their faces and when their eyesight returned they were in a corridor. Matt raised his hand and stopped, looking at a hand he hadn't had to see since the Maelstrom Star incident. "Well, given my psyche, I should have expected as much," said Matt. Matt's form to any NSC'er was that of a red scaled anthro dragon, or a splitter as NSC'er called them. He was wearing the same battle armor kit that Xander, the only splitter in CPS, preferred.

Chloe however, much to her disgust, looked like Silvia in her dragon form, right down to the imperial battle gear. "Ok, this sucks," she said.

"Next time we try this, let's ask Jeremie if we can upgrade to more humanoid avatars," said Matt, "Now where is this place?"

"Must be the Replika he spoke of, the sub thing must be around here somewhere," said Chloe, peering round a corner carefully.

Matt looked round above her. "Great, for all we know the dock for the skid could be a picture or a thought. This isn't the digital world," he said.

Chloe glared at him. "It was your idea to come here."

The corridor, and in fact the entire area, was made up of large blue blocks of various sizes. "Interesting architecture," commented Matt, "So as soon as we find this tower, Jeremie can beam us to whichever base this supercomputer's located at."

Chloe shrugged. "Like I said, your plan, you make it up. But I reckon we should find the others first," she said.

"Great, given what we look like at the moment they're probably no better off," said Matt, annoyed.

Suddenly they heard the sound of wingflaps and they looked up to see several Wadjets heading for them. "Don't worry," said Matt, "I think those things are non-transformable drones."

Then the Wadjets started firing laser blasts from their mouths. "But that doesn't make them much less dangerous," said Chloe.

Matt and Chloe ducked behind a block and made a worrying discovery. They had no visible weaponry. "Remind me to punt Jeremie if we live!" yelled Matt as more blasts bounced off their cover.

"Ok, so the supercomputer picked up on the dragon part of our subconscious," said Chloe, "Therefore our powers should be based around dragons."

"Great," said Matt, "Now how about our attacks?"

"Think for a minute," said Chloe, "What do dragons in storybooks use to attack villages?"

Matt thought about this and shrugged. "Worth a try," he said and peered out of cover, opened his jaws and spat a fireball that clipped one of the drone's wings.

"Now that's more like it," said Chloe as she spat out lightning bolts. Between the two of them, the Wadjets were quickly demolished. "Now let's use these wings and try to find that Tower," said Chloe.

The two took to the sky and Matt absently said, "Brings back memories."

Chloe looked over. "What memories?" she asked suspiciously. Luckily Matt avoided the question when another group nearer the ground came into view.

The two of them landed nearby. The Lyoko Warriors were about to fire when Matt cried, "Hold it, it's us!"

"Matt? Chloe?" said Ulrich as he lowered his swords.

"How did you get here?" asked Yumi.

"Jeremie sent us," said Chloe, "I guess we're part of the team now."

Odd looked the siblings up and down and said, "Interesting forms."

"We've had interesting lives." said Matt, looking around. "So, I'm shocked at Mantichrome. I expected better security from him," he commented then stopped. "Please tell me I didn't say that."

--

Meanwhile, Mantichrome was at the base where the supercomputer was. He was brooding over a computer monitor when the Schizophrona came in. "Master," he said, "The Lyoko Warriors have arrived in the Replika."

"I thought they would come," said Mantichrome, "In fact, I expected it. I want them captured, but not critically damaged. I want the pleasure of finishing them off myself."

Schizophrona paused before adding uncertainly, "I think those mercenaries are there too. The ones who had those..." he shuddered for a second, "...spiderbots with them."

Mantichrome raised a metaphorical eyebrow, "They're in the Replika as well?"

"Yes, sire, it appears that they have also been scanned."

Mantichrome grinned and said, "Do the same with them." He glanced through a window into another room where a large pool of water was constantly being churned by metallic dorsal fins. "I've been wanting to feed them to the Sharkticons ever since I invented them."

* * *

There's another chapter. This one was supposed to be one of the funnier chapters. Personally, I thought it was quite funny. Anyways, the final chapter will be up tomorrow. You'll see what Mantichrome has in plan for our heroes then. In the meantime, please review.


	5. Trial by Water

**Voyagers Saga:**

**New Threats**

**Chapter 5: Trial By Water**

It didn't take too long for the gang to finish off any drones that Mantichrome sent. "Jeremie, we need to get to the supercomputer in the real world," said Aelita.

"Working on that," said Jeremie, "Just give me a minute to set up the auto-defense systems on the Skid and I'll teleport you there."

"I don't like this. It's way too easy," said Chloe, looking around.

"Mantichrome will know we're coming," said Odd, serious for once, "For all we know, he probably wants us to come."

"Hey, anyone else see the giant neon sign with the word 'Trap this way' on it?" said Matt sarcastically.

Then a shimmering blue shield appeared around the Skid as well as a few guns popping out of it. "Ok, the Skid's secure," said Jeremie, "Teleporting now." The gang felt a shimmer through their bodies as they faded away.

--

**Cairo, Egypt**

The group shimmered into view in a poorly lit warehouse. Matt and Chloe, who had been outfitted with a program by Chip to make them independent from the supercomputer, appeared in their normal forms and instantly grabbed their blasters, looking around. "Ok, this isn't much of an uplink center," said Matt. Chloe went to an emergency exit door and slowly opened it to reveal that the warehouse was on the edge of the desert, the great pyramid in the distance. It was Cairo.

"Why would anyone build a supercomputer way out here?" asked Ulrich.

"Not sure," said Yumi, "But what's important now is that we destroy it."

Matt and Chloe went out the door first and looked around. They were in an old dockside warehouse complex near the Nile, abandoned by the looks of things. A satellite relay tower could be seen, old, rusty, but strangely receiving power from the building next to it.

"I bet if we destroy that place, it'd shut down that supercomputer," said Matt. "If not, it'd at least cause complications for Mantichrome."

"Whoa, look at this dump," said Odd, "What did they use this place for? Analyzing those boulders?" The gang looked at several large boulders outside the buildings. One of them, which was oddly smooth, suddenly turned around and an ice beam shot out and froze Odd.

Matt and Chloe began shooting as the 'boulder' unfolded into Roughshell. "Back! Back now!" yelled Matt.

Roughshell continued firing, but only with his freeze ray. "Why isn't he trying to finish off?" asked Aelita.

"He's not trying to kill us," said Ulrich as he deflected a beam with his sword, "He's trying to catch us. UGH!" The last part was when a beam hit his chest and covered him in ice.

Matt tossed a plasma blast at Roughshell's eye symbol, scoring a direct hit. "See how you like that."

"I came prepared," said Roughshell.

"Ooh, now he's speaking more than two words," said Chloe mockingly.

"And in first person too, I'm scared," added Matt.

"You should be," said Roughshell as the rest of the boulders revealed themselves to be normal Xiphosuras.

Matt and Chloe moved their guns between the various creatures. "Draco, Chip, little help?" said Matt.

"They aren't here, remember?" said Chloe, "You said they weren't allow to participate in battle." "Oh," said Matt, "Oh smeg."

The Xiphosuras all fired at the same time, hitting both the Lynches dead center.

--

When Matt and Chloe came to, they and the other warriors were inside a cool room and were in handcuffs. From the light reflecting off the walls, there was a pool behind them. "Great, we're stuck in some hellhole cause you threw a tantrum at Draco and Chip," said Chloe accusingly.

"It doesn't look too bad," said Matt, "How could it really be if it has a swimming pool?"

"Uh, that's not a swimming pool," said Aelita, "That's an aquarium."

"Oh…oh dear," said Matt as his mind gave him a really good idea of the sort of things Mantichrome had as pet fish, for certain definitely not goldfish.

I thought Mantichrome hated organics," said Chloe.

"He does," said Yumi, "That tank's full of Sharkticons."

"Sharkticons? What are-" Chloe's question was answered for her when several metal dorsal fins appeared on the surface of the water. A couple of faces popped up to, ones with round yellow eyes, XANA's symbol between those eyes, and a mouth full of sharp steel teeth.

"How the hell are those working in the real world?" gibbered Matt, his age old phobia of drowning (and/or being devoured by sharks) was playing up badly and he edged as far as his restraints allowed away from the edge.

"He probably built them here," said Ulrich, "The question is why didn't he feed us to them by now?"

The door at the far end opened and the bot of the hour strode in followed by his Monstercons. "We could ask him." suggested Matt.

"Ah, you're awake," said Mantichrome, "I was hoping you'd be conscious, yes." He pulled a white curly wig from his behind his back and put it on. "Let the trial commence," he said as he took his seat on a raised platform.

Matt and Chloe stared before desperately trying, and failing, not to grin. Matt finally said, "All rise for his lordship, Judge Twerp," and he and his sister gave up and started laughing hysterically.

"Bailiff," said Mantichrome, "Please remind the defendants that they are to respect the court." Roughshell nodded and shot a concentrated heat laser at the Lynches' feet.

This only partially worked, not helped that the Monstercons when behind Mantichrome were smirking at the wig too. "So, what's the plan? Make us laugh to death?" said Matt.

Mantichrome looked a sheet of paper and said, "Lyoko Warriors, you stand here accused of the murder of XANA and the disruption of the advancement of society. How do you plea?"

"Objection. That wig's a crime against common sense," said Matt

Mantichrome glared and said, "Can we forget the wig already?" He took it off and said, "Now then, how do you plea? Or should I decide for you?"

"Innocent, you metal twit," said Matt.

Chloe sighed. "Innocent," she said, in a slightly more tactful voice.

"Prosecutor, your case?" said Mantichrome.

Whipsting approached and said, "These young hooligans are obviously guilty. Their meaty brains come up with nothing but treacherous things. I say we just throw them to the Sharkticons and get it over with."

"Objection on the grounds you're all idiots," said Matt

"Overruled," said Mantichrome as he smacked his gavel against the platform, "Leafstripper shall speak for the defense."

"Oh, goody," said Leafstripper, "I like defense. Maybe if I had a little more, I wouldn't get blown up so often."

"Oh god, objection on the same grounds. Leafstripper has the brains of a calculator with flat batteries." said Chloe this time. Much to Leafstripper's anger, it was actually considered.

"You haven't seen anything yet," said Mantichrome, "Proceed."

Leafstripper cleared his throat and said, "Lyoko brats continually defied XANA's plans. They even destroyed XANA. They even beat up Mantichrome and mess up his plans. Mantichrome wants to slag Lyoko brats. Leafstripper is down with that. Defense rests."

"Ah, brilliant as always," said Mantichrome.

"Hey, I bet WARDEN's got more of those spiderbots. Thing is, I lost track of them just after we materialized here," lied Matt, making the Monstercons suddenly start to look around worriedly.

"There's nothing to fear, gentlemen, he's bluffing," said Mantichrome, to the relief of the Monstercons, "Have the defendants have anything to say before sentence is determined?"

"Uh, don't you mean verdict?" said Odd.

"Fine, if you want it that way, anything to say?"

"Yeah, you couldn't kill us if we were already dead, you bunch of toasters!" said Matt

"Silence!" called Mantichrome as he banged his gavel, "One more outburst and you'll be judged of contempt of this court."

"I have nothing BUT contempt for this court," said Chloe.

"I second that. Get it over with, but do not waste the accused persons' time," said Matt, doing an insulting impression of Mantichrome's own tone of voice.

"Has the jury reached a verdict?" asked Mantichrome.

The jury was solely comprised of Schizophrona, who switched voiceboxes and said with Ulrich's voice, "I have."

"Gulity or innocent?" asked Mantichrome.

Schizophrona switched voiceboxes and said with Yumi's voice, "Innocent."

"Obje...say what?" said Matt confused.

"Splendid," said Mantichrome and turned to Deathgrip, "Feed them to the Sharkticons." Deathgrip nodded and pulled a nearby switch.

Matt was about to swear at Mantichrome when the switch dumped the group into the water. They surfaced and Matt did swear, luckily in splitter. "You don't want to know what he said," said Chloe, transforming a finger into a dragon claw to try and cut her bonds.

Matt was about to shout a more coherent insult at Mantichrome when he saw the Sharkticons were starting to converge on them. "Oh crap," he said and dived, panic overcoming his fear of being totally submerged. He turned to see two of the Sharkticons homing in on him. Matt got a blurry image of what the Sharkticons' bodies looked like. They were pretty much all round except for the crab-like legs, the shark's tails, and the dorsal fins. Nevertheless, the mouths full of sharp teeth were enough to make him scream and lose all the air in his mouth.

He tried to flail back towards the surface, made difficult as his hands were still bound. This was solved when one of the Sharkticons, overeager, lunged and bit through the metal cuffs with ease. Matt immediately tried a trick he had learned out of a book. He punched the Sharkticon in the nose, hoping it would go away. Unfortunately, he forgot that it was completely made of metal. He winced in pain, losing the last of his air in a flare of air bubbles. He swam as fast as he could for the surface, barely making it. "This...isn't good," he said, coughing up water.

"You're telling me," said Odd as he was attempting to keep the Sharkticons from chomping on his tail. Matt aimed a plasma blast at the Sharkticon bothering Odd, blasting it back.

"We have to get out of the water before they tear us to pieces," said Aelita as she used an energy field to blast another Sharkticon.

"Don't bother struggling," called Mantichrome, "No one can save you now!"

Suddenly there was the sound of distant explosions. "What in the name of XANA-" started Mantichrome when the ceiling was smashed apart and Draco and Chip descended on a rope.

"Here comes the marines!" shouted Draco. He was more or less right at that. Two Hawks from the Bladestorm were firing their autocannons into the yard outside, shreading the XANA minions outside and more gunfire suggested that some of the ships' marines were making trouble too.

Mantichrome didn't waste any time and called out, "Monstercons, unite!" The four Monstercons quickly combined to form Monstructor. "Destroy them all!" commanded Mantichrome. Monstructor started firing several laser blasts at the intruders. However, this notable amount of violent activity caused a nearby orbiting defense satellite to notice him.

--

Alert...Class 12 Cybertronian signal detected.

Breach of Treaty confirmed...Lethal response authorized

--

Matt had just managed to climb out of the Sharkticon pit when he noticed that there was a circle on the ground was growing a steadily brighter yellow. "Oh boy, erm, Mantichrome, I don't usually advise villains. But running might be beneficial to your health," he said before running for the exit. The others had also seen it and were running for the edge of the compound.

--

Targets Targeted and Logged

Firing in 3...2...1

--

Monstructor had flown up into the air, unaware of the looming danger. He was just about to fire on the group when a yellow laser beam shot down from the sky and sliced through the right side of his body. He gave a cry of pain as he tumbled out of the sky. His body shattered into pieces as his head bounced a considerable distance.

The group peered out from whatever cover they had hidden in. The blast had also hit the satellite tower, effectively severing the defense grid connection. Mantichrome was standing very still, in shock and covered in soot. "Wanna surrender?" called Matt cheekily.

Mantichrome glared at Matt, but then noticed something and smiled. "I'm not finished yet," he said and threw marigold-colored lightning bolts at the group. Matt wasn't phased until purple and green lightning bolts joined it.

Matt was knocked over by one of the new blasts and Chloe got a good look at the culprit, her first real look at Ghoulwyrm along with a couple of figures she didn't recognize. Among those new figures was an elder Asian woman in maroon robes, a monkey wearing a gold-colored track suit, a red version of Stitch with yellow teeth, bent antenna, and ruffled ears. But there was another that was very familiar. Chloe's eyes narrowed and flashed white. "Omnirus," she growled and sent a lightning bolt back at the experiment.

Omnirus X barely dodged the lightning bolt. The Stitch lookalike growled and got ready to pounce. "Not yet, Leroy," said Omnirus, "I think we have more to concentrate on than just one irate, yet quite strong, female warrior."

A lightning bolt from Chloe followed by a 'TAKE THAT YOU FURRY GIT!' hit Omnirus, highlighting his skeleton for a minute.

The woman was getting ready to attack when Ghoulwyrm said, "No, Chang. The opposition is too great. We're simply here to collect our comrade." Mantichrome was still standing where he'd been, making groaning noises. Having a starship grade plasma blast land a hair's width from your nose can do that to a lifeform, even if that lifeform was mechanical. Ghoulwyrm landed near him and said, "Time to go, Mantichrome. Pick up your toys and let's leave."

"Why yes, admiral lollipop," gibbered Mantichrome vaguely.

Chang was about to blast Mantichrome when Ghoulwyrm said, "Don't bother. His processor's been addled. He doesn't really know what he's saying." Mantichrome started singing 'My little lollipop' which wasn't helping as the Bladestorm crew had gotten their acts back together and were throwing everything they had at the villains.

A small electrical zap from Ghoulwyrm sent Mantichrome into sleep mode and he then picked him up. After grabbing Monstructor's head and the damaged Schizophrona, Ghoulwyrm said, "Time to call it a day. We'll deal with this lot some other time." "Chang, now!" called Ghoulwyrm as the other members of his group gathered together. Chang lifted her staff in the air and a blinding flash of light appeared. When the light faded, the villains were gone.

--

With the defense grid back under NSC control and no time reversal event having occurred, Matt was trying to write up a believable lie in his report to make sure the NSC wouldn't come looking for the kids any longer. The door to his quarters hissed open and he looked up to see Draco and Chip. "Yes?" he said before looking back down at his computer screen.

"Um, we came to apologize for holding out on those kids and Mantichrome," said Draco.

"We ought to have known you'd be able to keep their secret safe," said Chip.

"Anything else you kept? Anything that we should know?" said Matt, not looking up.

"Well, Ghoulwyrm may have a new super form," said Draco.

"What?" said Matt, looking up.

"We're not entirely sure," said Chip, "We've only seen it once and there were some unusual conditions then. He may have lost it since then."

Matt said, "Anything else?" his eyes starting to glow white.

Draco shivered as he felt the dark energy. "Only that Megan's been with the kids for a bit and met Mantichrome and Ghoulwyrm. But she's back with Baba Yaga now," he said.

Matt nodded. "Fine," he said, his eyes becoming normal again, "You understand what you did and how it was bad for the crew, don't you?"

"We are now," said Draco.

"But it's even worse now that Chang, Bananas, and Omnirus joined up with those two," said Chip, "By the way, you know who that Stitch copy was?"

"I have a feeling. I did read up on something called the 'Leroy incident' a few months before me, Kala, and V-Angel arrived on the island," said Matt before saying, "You're staying, but if you keep anything from us again and someone dies, you'll pay, ok?"

"Understood, sir," said the two experiments and saluted.

* * *

And there's the final chapter. Draco and Chip are back on the crew and Earth's safe for now. And as you can guess, there are several Transformers references in this chapter. First off, the trial was based on both the trial of Quickstrike in Beast Wars and the infamous Quintesson trials. Similarly, the Schizophrona is based on the Quintessons, in case I haven't mentioned that. Sharkticons were the Quintessons' minions in the original cartoon, but mine look different and don't have robot modes, if you look on my deviantART page. And Monstructor's defeat by the sattelite was supposed to parody Devastator's destruction by the railgun in Revenge of the Fallen. Anyways, the gang now has a new group of villains to look out for who might turn up again soon. The next story will be along some time this week. Until then, please review.


End file.
